Knowing how much you need in retirement is more about knowing what kind of lifestyle you desire when you have retired, or, transitioning to retirement.

According to the ASFA Retirement Standard, for a single person that magic number is $545,000.

But according to the ABS – the average super balances for the entire working population1 would suggest that we are not even close to that mark, however, a closer look into the average balance by age group reveals that the average balance for men between 55-59 is $237,022 and for women it is $123,642.

So how can we boost our super balance?

When every dollar counts, here are a few sneaky ways to squirrel up your super balance;

Make sure you’ve consolidated all of your super2 so to save on incurring multiple fees across multiple accounts. Just keep a careful eye on any nasty exit fees.

Whether it’s for diversifying the investment pool or even for the trustees fearing the next financial ‘doomsday’ event, a common question we get asked at Superfund Partners is “can an SMSF buy gold? And are there any rules we need to be aware of?”.

In short, yes and yes!

The first thing to consider is what type of gold we are analysing; are they collectable gold coins or bullion bars? For the purpose of our blog, we look at bullion bars. Please refer to ‘collectable rules’ via the ATO website for more details on collectables.

Gold bullion bars

Since they are not defined as a collectable, when an SMSF buys bullion bars, the key issues to consider are as follows;

Where will it be stored?

Whilst there are no specific rules around this, it’s the trustee’s responsibility to make sure the gold assets are securely protected.